Jorge Lorenzo withdraws from Laguna Seca MotoGP race

Published: 14 July 2013

Jorge Lorenzo has confirmed that he will not compete in the forthcoming Laguna Seca MotoGP clash in California to give himself as much time as possible to make a full recovery from an injury-ravaged fortnight.

Lorenzo was ruled out of today’s German round at the Sachsenring after a heavy crash in FP2 on Friday damaged a titanium plate in his left shoulder.

The plate had only been inserted 15 days earlier in Assen when the reigning world champion had broken his left collarbone in a practice crash in Holland.

The 26-year-old produced a medical miracle to race to fifth place in Assen just 48 hours after his accident, but further damage and additional surgery in Barcelona meant he never even contemplated repeating his heroic efforts in Germany.

He underwent a two-hour operation in Barcelona on Saturday morning to replace the plate and insert 10 screws to stabilise the severely weakened collarbone.There had been no news on whether he would attempt to make a return to his factory YZR-M1 in Laguna Seca next weekend but he took to his personal Twitter account last night to break news that he will not make the long trip to San Francisco.

Lorenzo had been bombarded on Twitter with fans asking about his Laguna Seca participation and he wrote: “To the people asking me about Laguna, I would like to say that I don't want to take more risk and have a good recovery. See you in Indy!”The Indianapolis race takes place on August 18 and by giving himself a four-week window to recover, Lorenzo will be back in action for the 10th round of the championship back to 100% fitness.